1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to an air conditioner having a plurality of overcooling pipes provided in a parallel or in-line formation, or having an overcooler with a combination of parallel and in-line pipe formations, in order to further cool refrigerant that has passed through a heat exchanger, thereby increasing the cooling effectiveness of the air conditioner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an air conditioner is a cooling/heating apparatus that cools or heats the air inside an indoor space of an office, home, etc. An air conditioner uses a refrigerant cycle in the sequence of compressing-condensing-expansion-evaporation to exchange heat between refrigerant and air to cool or heat air within a specific space.
Recently, air conditioners are being manufactured with not only basic cooling and heating functions, but other functions such as air purifiers that suction and filter contaminated indoor air and discharge clean air, dehumidifiers that convert humid air to dry air and discharge the latter back into an indoor space, and various other functions that ameliorate living.
Also, air conditioners can be divided into split air conditioners that have separate indoor units and outdoor units, and single unit air conditioners that integrate the indoor unit with the outdoor unit. Due to installation space and noise considerations, the split air conditioner is the preferred type today.
Instead of air-cooled air conditioners that use air to exchange heat with refrigerant to condition the air inside an indoor space, increased research and development is being done on water-cooled air conditioners that use water to exchange heat with refrigerant to condition the air inside an indoor space. This water-cooled type of air conditioner is a device that is favored as an alternative to the excessive power consumption of air-cooled air conditioners.
An air conditioner according to the related art includes indoor units that are respectively installed in individual indoor spaces for performing heat exchange of air within the indoor space, and outdoor units performing heat exchange of refrigerant and which are connected to the indoor units through pipes.
An indoor unit includes an indoor heat exchanger for exchanging heat between indoor air and refrigerant; and an outdoor unit includes a compressor for compressing the refrigerant, an outdoor heat exchanger for exchanging heat of refrigerant, etc. A refrigerant pipe fluidly communicates the indoor unit and outdoor unit and guides the flow of refrigerant therebetween.
The indoor unit suctions air from an indoor space to exchange heat between the air and refrigerant flowing within the indoor heat exchanger, and reintroduces the heat-exchanged air into the indoor space. This type of indoor unit is installed in a form that is suitable for its indoor space.
The outdoor unit guides the refrigerant that has passed through the inside of the indoor heat exchanger and exchanged heat with air from the indoor space to the inside of the outdoor heat exchanger, and performs heat exchanging within the outdoor heat exchanger.
The outdoor unit includes an overcooler that overcools the refrigerant flowing within the inside of the refrigerant pipe installed between the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger.
This overcooler has a double-stacked pipe formed in a spiraling cylindrical shape with a hollow inner portion. That is, in an overcooler according to the related art, piping through which refrigerant flows is formed in a double spiral that encloses a passage for overcooling coolant to flow through.
However, in such a configuration according to the related art, the following problems arise.
In a water-cooled air conditioner according to the related art, the overcooler is formed in a stacked spiral pipe arrangement through which coolant flows, performing overcooling. Such an overcooler that performs overcooling with a stacked spiral pipe arrangement through which overcooling coolant flows, is dimensionally large by necessity. Due to the large size of the overcooler, the overall size of the air conditioner increases as well. Because the overall size of the air conditioner increases, the installation space for installing the air conditioner must be expansive, restricting the spaces in which the air conditioner may be installed and used.
Also, in general, because only one overcooler is installed on an existing air conditioner to perform overcooling according to the related art, it is insufficient to achieve a satisfactory degree of cooling. For the latter, an overcooler that excessively increases the dimensions of an air conditioner must be installed.